affection

noun af·fec·tion \ ə-ˈfek-shən \

|Updated on: 14 Jun 2018

Tip: Synonym Guide

Examples: affection in a Sentence

Editor's Note: affectation and affection

Definition of affection

1 : a feeling of liking and caring for someone or something : tender attachment : fondness

She had a deep affection for her parents.

2 : a moderate feeling or emotion

3 a (1) : a bodily condition

(2) : disease, malady

a pulmonary affection

b : attribute

shape and weight are affections of bodies

4 obsolete : partiality, prejudice

5 : the feeling aspect (as in pleasure) of consciousness

6 a : propensity, disposition

b archaic : affectation 1

7 : the action of affecting : the state of being affected

8 : umlaut 2 —used especially in the grammar of the Celtic languages

—

affectionless

play \-ləs\ adjective

See affection defined for English-language learners

Examples of affection in a Sentence

She has deep affection for her parents.
He shows great affection for his grandchildren.
feelings of love and affection
He now looks back on those years with great affection.
She developed a deep affection for that country and its people.

Recent Examples of affection from the Web

Please accept this rose quartz as a symbol of our affection.

— cady drell, Marie Claire, "The 5 Most Important Contributions ‘The Hills’ Made to Culture," 7 June 2018
Hernandez hopes to win over fans who feel his mere presence on the roster is the ultimate example of the organization’s affection for veterans and journeymen and past glories at the expense of progress and youth.

— henry schulman, San Francisco Chronicle, "Giants’ Hernandez turning AT&T into Gorkys’ park," 7 June 2018
Even when Sam, in a moving scene near the end, reveals the source of his affection for the Fourth of July show, it’s rendered with restraint and understatement.

— james hebert, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Cygnet's rap-informed 'The Wind and the Breeze' finds meditative rhythms," 20 May 2018
The man then made up an elaborate lie in pursuit of her affections.

— elizabeth schumacher, USA TODAY, "German student admits killing classmate who rejected him," 17 Apr. 2018
But the main objects of our affection were vampires.

— meredith goldstein, The Cut, "The Vampire Movie Obsession That Made Me Reconsider How I Felt About Porn," 16 Apr. 2018
At least three journalists said Slutsky tried to kiss them, touch them inappropriately or openly grovelled for their affections.

— damien sharkov, Newsweek, "Me Too in Russia? Women Lose Harassment Case Against Powerful Politician," 21 Mar. 2018
Broadcom, if Mr Tan’s past form is anything to go by, will soon find a new target for its affections.

— The Economist, "The world’s largest-ever tech deal now depends on Qualcomm," 17 Feb. 2018
Read on to learn about 10 relationships between people and the objects of their affection.

— amanda greene, Woman's Day, "10 Romances Between People and…Things," 12 Apr. 2010

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'affection.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

affectation and affection

Affectation looks a lot like a much more common word, affection. But the two are used very differently.

The more familiar word, affection, in modern use means "a feeling of liking and caring for someone or something," as in "They show their dog a lot of affection."

Affectation, on the other hand, refers to a form of behavior that's unnatural to the person engaging in it, and that is meant to impress other people. A phony accent someone uses to sound more sophisticated, for example, can be considered an affectation, as can pretending to know all about some obscure band in order to seem cool.

The words don't have much in common in their use, but their similarity in appearance is not coincidence. Both have to do with one of the trickiest words in the language: affect.

Affect is one of the most frequently looked-up words in the dictionary, primarily because of its regular confusion with effect. The short rationale that you often hear when it comes to distinguishing the two is that effect is usually a noun and affect is a verb. The breakdown isn't all that simple, however, and what makes things even more confusing is that there are two verb entries for affect.

One affect entry is for the sense meaning "to produce an effect upon (someone)" or "to act upon (a person, a person's mind or feelings, etc.) so as to effect a response." This is the sense that connects to affection, as in "We were affected by the young woman's heartfelt speech." Being affected by something in this way doesn't necessarily result in affection, but it can.

The other verb affect is defined as "to make a display of liking or using : cultivate" or "to put a pretense on : feign." It is used when talking about things like styles or mannerisms, as in "He affected a British accent and tweedy look after reading nothing but Sherlock Holmes stories for months on end."

The two verbs affect took different etymological paths from the same origin. The "put on a pretense" sense of affect derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from the Latin affectāre, meaning "to try to accomplish, strive after, pretend to have." Affectāre is a derivative of afficere, which means "to produce an effect on, exert an influence on"; the affect related to affection is from a variant of afficere.

Origin and Etymology of affection

Middle English affeccioun "capacity for feeling, emotion, desire, love," borrowed from Anglo-French, "desire, love, inclination, partiality," borrowed from Latin affectiōn-, affectiō "frame of mind, feeling, feeling of attachment," from affec- (variant stem of afficere "to produce an effect on, exert an influence on") + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns — more at ³affect

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 2

See Words from the same year

affection Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of affection

feeling, emotion, affection, sentiment, passion mean a subjective response to a person, thing, or situation. feeling denotes any partly mental, partly physical response marked by pleasure, pain, attraction, or repulsion; it may suggest the mere existence of a response but imply nothing about the nature or intensity of it.